With Love, Zidane
by sup3rl0z3r
Summary: With no hope for the return of Zidane, the famous band of Gaian heroes try to find comfort in letters he left behind for them... but do these letters cause more hurt than help?
1. Chapter 1

With Love Zidane

**With Love, Zidane**

**A/n: this is gonna be short. It's gonna be about nine chapters long… but all of them should go fairly fast, seeing on how in my original plans, this was just a one shot. I should be finished with this within the month. I've already got most of it completed I just need to type it up. I've been planning it out for a while. I think it will be a nice little refreshing piece for me. **

**Read it. Review it. Love it.**

**The Introduction: If I Fall**

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"Wow, just look at the size of that thing!" was the first shout that caught Garnet's attention. The whole crew, including herself had been staying at Lindblum Grand Castle until the press and towns people calmed down over the recent war's end. Various ships left daily from the castle to try and find the leader of the well known heroes of Gaia. For the past week, they had come home with something everyday… everything except Zidane. On this particular day, Garnet found herself at the dock much like every other day, to see if what they found was really of any importance.

"What is that thing?" One of the engineers gaped at the airship before him, "We don't even have the technology for anything like this!"

"That's because the technology for that ship is not of this world." Garnet simply stated walking closer to The Invincible.

"Wh-what!" the engineers all shouted soon huddling up in excitement over the alien ship.

Garnet put her hand to the cold metal of the ship. Running her hand over feeling various scratches and dents under her finger tips, it must have been through so much after being abandoned at the Iifa Tree. One of the engineers strayed from his peers, "Your highness, I'm sorry, but we can't have you near this thing… we don't know what it's capable of."

She shook her head, dismissing him, and not moving her hand from the vehicle, "How did you get this here?"

The man puffed out his chest in pride, "Well, it took us a while, but we towed this baby all the way from the tree!" He patted the side of the ship.

"How many ships did that take?" Garnet managed to mumble under her breath before boarding the ship, unaware of the clanking of Steiner's armor behind her.

She walked through the familiar halls, running her fingertips against the sides of the wall, and taking notice to the slew of abandoned items scattered amongst the floor board. She came to an abrupt halt at one of the many various rooms on board. She sighed and slowly opened the door. A smile slowly spread across her face at the sight of various bags and weapons sprawled out across the room. She walked over to her bag, opening it and pulling out an older rod. An instant grin was now plastered on her face as she twirled it through her fingers. She lost her balance in her excitement, and clumsily fell into another bag. "ow," She moaned picking herself up from the bag and turning to see it was Zidane's. Her eyes welled with tears and she was struck with an instant fear in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't quite sure as to why she was scared… but curiosity was taking over her and she sat on her knees, opening the bag.

The first thing in the bag as older pairs of his daggers, as she dug deeper there were extra pairs of clothes and other accessories, but more over every thing that interested her, there was a large envelope packed full of papers. She raised an eyebrow, and finally sat on her bottom for her own comfort.

"Your highness…" She cocked her head up towards the door seeing Steiner.

"Oh, Steiner, when did you get here?" She looked back down to the envelope and cleared a space of the floor in front of her.

"Long enough." He cleared his throat and clanked over to the part of the room that held his old bag, "I don't think Zidane would want us to go through his stuff.

"It's not just his." She sighed pulling out the paper on top. The paper was lined with decorations of roses and tangles of green vines. Between its beautiful border, however, was the scribblings of a dwarf. She smiled warmly, "This one also belongs to me."

Steiner turned to her, absorbed in observing an old broadsword, "Oh, really? What is it."

"Our marriage certificate," She almost whispered.

"Your what?!" Steiner jumped in a rage, a few choice words on his tongue mainly about a certain young thief and a naive queen.

"Whatcha guys up to?" a squeaky voice interrupted Steiner's rage, as Eiko dragged Vivi by the wrist into the storage room, "Ya' know Cid's thinkin' 'bout using this ship to improve his own."

Eiko plopped on the floor next to Garnet and observed the marriage certificate that Garnet had just put back down.

"You've been awfully attached to the regent lately, Eiko." Freya leaned against the doorframe.

Vivi suddenly pulled his hat over his eyes, "We shouldn't be here! The engineers said not to!"

"Awe come on, Vivi! This our ship, not theirs." Quina dashed in with excitement, tongue flailing and all.

Garnet silently giggled to herself and pulled out a small bundle of envelopes from the package. It was a stack, about ten or so wide, they were wrapped in a sheet of paper, and reinforced with some light blue lace.

"What is Cid gonna do with this, only Zidane knows how to fly it…" Amarant's voice interrupted Garnet's concentration. She shook her head and looked back down to the papers. As the groups conversation continued, Garnet found herself more interested in the papers. She ran her finger tips across the lace and read the title Zidane had wrote across the paper , "If I fall."

"Huh?" The team ceased their prior interest to look to Garnet.

She hugged her knees to her chest with one arm and held out the papers to the group in the other, "Some one has to read this," Garnet stopped herself from sobbing, letting only a few tears descend her checks, "I can not."

The group stared at one another for a moment before Freya extended her arm, grabbing the papers. "If I fall…" she said before untying the lace and letting it fall to the floor.

"We shouldn't read that!" Eiko jumped up.

Vivi joined her, "Zidane's not dead!"

The room fell silent, undisturbed by all, but Amarant who grunted, "There's no way he survived, we saw him go in… we saw the roots collapse."

"Even if he did survive…" Steiner's voice became unusually calm, "he's been trapped in there for a week with no food or water."

"No!" Eiko jumped, "Zidane would get out! He would!"

"He would!" Vivi echoed

The adults just looked sadly to the younger children. "I can't believe you all!" Eiko turned to face Dagger, "You don't seriously think he's dead, do ya' Dagger?"

Garnet sighed and patted Eiko's head lightly, "What should I think?"

"AUGH! I can't believe this!" Eiko yelled, "If you even begin to utter a word from that I am leaving!"

Soon the small, rather cramped cargo room became a roaring mad house, with all seven comrades' arguments.

"SHUT UP!" Amarant's voice boomed over the chaos and immediate attention was given to him, "how about this. There is a letter to each of us individually. We will give them all to each of you, and whenever you're ready to read it, read it."

"I'm not taking that letter from you!" Eiko yelled and turned to Vivi, "You won't either, will you Vivi?"

"I…uh, well…" Vivi twiddled his thumbs, "it's not like I'll read it now, just when I'm ready to…"

"NO! Not you too Vivi!" Eiko stormed out with tear stung eyes. How could her own friends give up so easily, they were supposed to be the strongest beings on the face of Gaia! No, they were weak. Weak and pathetic, as far as the horned heroin saw it! Zidane was her hero, and that was enough information she needed to know that he still lived!

She stomped into the guest room, wanting only to clear her head. All she felt she could do was relax and take a cat nap. A short time after plopping into her bed, she succumbed to a well needed rest.

Soft footprints made her ears perk as they came to a sudden halt at her bedside. I soft kiss rest itself against her forehead, "Sweet dreams, Eiko."

"Zidane…?" Her eyes slowly opened and though her sight was blurry, she scanned the room. No one was there, however, so she rested her weary head back to the pillows. As her eyes adjusted, she saw an envelope on resting on the side table. She grabbed the envelope and began to sob, "Where have you gone? Why aren't you home?" She hugged the envelope close to her chest, and opened it…

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**a/n:** wanna know what it says? Stayed tuned! I hope this introduction didn't bore you to tears. I'm kind of using this as release as I wait for my Beta to finish proofreading CTS. But don't worry I will finish this one, and it won't take long, I promise.


	2. Dear Eiko

_**Dear Eiko**__,_

Her feet hit the floor, and she was off. Today was a new day, full of new possibilities. Today was also a lucky day, she figured, as she had a great friend somewhere out there looking out for her and cheering her on to be the best that she could be. Today was going to be the start of a new adventure with or without the others. Today, her new life began! She was going to see the world! She was going to try new things!

_**You are, without a doubt, the smartest, most courageous six year old I think I'll ever meet.**_

But, first, she would visit Cid. He was a new exciting feature to her very dull days cooped up in the grand castle. Always a new adventure, always a new story, Cid was full of surprises. Eiko pushed through the guards preceding the Regent's chamber, "Miss Eiko, the regent is asleep"

She continued to push through, "S'okay, we're pals, 'scuse me." But a lady doesn't just barge through a gentleman's chamber so early in the morn.

_**One day, you're going to meet a very handsome guy,…**_

She pounded on the massive doors before immediately entering. A lady knocks first. "Good morning Cid!" She nodded to the other lump in the bed, "… And you as well, Lady Hilda!" She scurried over to the windows pulling back the drapes. "Eiko!" A protest came from the now upright Hilda, "You cannot just barge into another person's chamber without permission… we could have been indecent."

"But you must wake up! Today is a new day! Full of adventure and new destinies! We have to make haste!" She protested in return.

Cid, now standing clad in a robe, snatched the young summoner into his arms and scuffled her odd colored locks, "Did you hear that, dear? New adventures and destiny! It's as if she's physic!"

…_**and he's going to sweep you off your feet….**_

"Physic?" Eiko combed through her hair with her fingers as Cid placed her to the ground, "What? Did you have an adventure planned? How exciting!"

"Well, not exactly an adventure, sweetie…" Hilda withdrew from the bed and grabbed her robe as well.

"Oh… well then what?" Eiko's voice dropped slightly disappointed.

Cid sat lightly on the end of the bed and patted a spot next to him for her to sit, "Should we ask her now, dearest?"

"Ask me what?" Eiko blinked

_**And treat you like a princess.**_

Hilda crouched beside the bed and held out her hands for Eiko, "Sweetie, Cid and I have grown very fond of you… almost as if you were our own."

Cid placed his hand to Eiko's shoulder, "…and we'd hate to see you go back to Madain Sari all by yourself."

Hilda now holding Eiko's small war-tattered hands in her soft delicate ones, "What we're trying to say is, we would love for you to stay here with us, and…"

Eiko lunged into Hilda's arms without even hearing the rest, "Of course, yes!"

_**He's going to treat you like gold. You know how I know?**_

"We can even arrange for the moogles to visit as much as you would like." Cid said from the bed patting Eiko's back.

She released Hilda and looked to Cid, "Really? I'd love that."

"Of course, sweetie. Now, you can take some time to think we don't want to pressure you." Hilda smiled.

…_**because you refuse to accept any less.**_

Eiko scanned the large chamber and amongst the various treasures, she only saw two things she cared for… and they weren't even that shiny.

…_**and one day you're going to be a very strong independent young lady.**_

She hiccupped and jumped into Cid's arms this time, "What is there to think about? Thank you thank you thank you!"

_**Yep, the bastard that gets a hold of you is gonna be one lucky guy.**_

Cid just wrapped his arms around his nearly-adopted daughter and felt the cold tears trickle down from her face rested onto his neck… and soon he felt a few of his own tears on his cheek.

_**I'm just sorry that guy can't be me.**_

Sniffed and looked to the doorway of cheering onlookers. A few of her friends had seemed to squeeze through the crowd, Garnet in the middle, her hand wiping away a few tears of her own.

_**Hey, you know it couldn't have been me anyways…**_

Eiko released her grip on Cid with and smiled towards him. She walked to Garnet and grabbed her hands, "Dagger, I hope those are tears of happiness on my accord and not sad ones."

Dagger smiled, "I couldn't dream of being selfish at a time like this. I'm so very happy for you."

…_**I mean, as long as I'm being honest I think it's safe to confide in you that I had my eyes on another girl.**_

Eiko smiled to Dagger, "You know, Dagger, Zidane couldn't teach us everything… especially what to do when we're lonely. There are just some things we have to figure out for ourselves."

_**Take care of yourself, kid. You're really going places,**_

_**Zidane**_

"_What to do when I felt lonely… That was the only thing you couldn't teach me. But we need to figure out the answer for ourselves…"_

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Sorry for the long wait. If you haven't noticed I took a pretty long hiatus. I will finish this fic before starting any other chapter fics, promise. I'm making a slow comeback, so please don't rush me. Anyways, Thank you all for reading, please review on your way out, and I'll be sure to update faster this time around. Also, tell me if the format I wrote it in is hard to read... I played with a million different ways to write this, I liked this best.


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